Many have puzzled their
brains trying to find out the correct name, and the accurate meaning of
the name, of this quiet semi-highland parish. The two most celebrated
ministers of the parish differ widely in their views. Mr. Playfair in
1797 and Dr. Barty in 1843, in the two valuable Statistical Accounts,
have their own theories, which we cannot pretend to comment upon. The
former adheres to the name Bendothy, as the Communion cups were thus
inscribed in 1786. The latter styles this spelling as clearly
unwarrantable and without authority. In 1760, it took the name which it
still retains, and which we cannot trace exactly beyond 1595, when the
teinds were granted to Leonard Leslie, tlie Commendator of Cupar Abbey.
Although the popular pronunciation has always been Bennethy, probably
its derivation is from ben, “a hill,” do., a verbal particle prefixed to
the future in Gaelic, and chi, the future of the verb to see, thus
meaning, “the hill with the good view.” This is borne out by the
situation; for the rising ground, on the southern base of which the
church and manse stand, is midway between the Grampians on the north,
and the Sidlaws on the south, of the great valley of Strathmore; and
here the view is extensive, varied and beautiful.

This parish lies near the
eastern boundary of Perthshire, the Church being two miles from Cupar-Angus,
fifteen from Perth, and seventeen from Dundee. Originally it consisted
of a Highland and a Lowland portion. The former is now, along with parts
of the neighbouring parishes, within the quoad sacra parish of Persic;
the latter is divided into two nearly equal parts by the Ericht ; the
part which lies west of the river, and in which the Church, Manse, and
Schoolhouse are situated, being separated from the parish of Cupar-Angus
on the south by the river Isla, and bounded on the west and north by
Blairgowrie; the other stretching north between Rattray and Alyth across
the main road which joins Dunkeld and Kirriemuir. The Ericht has, before
joining the Isla, lost its rapid flow; and silently the Isla glides on,
unless swollen by heavy rains or melting snows. The Isla is here about
225 feet in breadth and 10 feet in depth; but in high floods it has
reached half-a-mile in width and 24 feet in depth. In 1774, the river
rose within six inches of the top of the lowest arches of the Bridge of
Coutty ; and it took nine years to let the land recover its soil and
vegetable powers. Some farmers used to drag their corn in harvest-time
to higher grounds ; others trusted to the season. Two neighbours had
adopted these respective methods; one jeered the other for want of faith
in Providence; but in a few days the “rain descended and the floods
came,” and the provident farmer retorted, “Wliaur is your faith now,
neighbour? It’s doun the water wi’ your corn.” This reminds us of an
occasion when the late Drs. Norman Macleod and Archibald Watson (the two
extremes of physique), were boating in a western loch. The wind rose
suddenly and fiercely. A nervous old maid in the boat asked the
clergymen to beseech the protection of Providence. But the shrewd old
boatman retorted, “The little ane can pray if he likes, but the big ane
mun tak’ an oar.” Generally, however, the Isla meanders gently at its
own sweet will,

“In many a winding bout
Of linked sweetness long drawn out."

The low haughs on its
banks are composed of transported soil, being the alluvial deposit of
many centuries. When the Isla overflows, a fine sediment of the nature
of virgin earth is deposited, forming with the natural clay a soil of
great fertility, and adding annually to the staple of the soil. The
principal property in this locality is Cupar-Grange, which at one time
was one of the country seats of the Abbot of Cupar. According to the
Rev. Dr. Robertson in his “Agriculture of Perthshire,” published in
1799, there was discovered at Coupar-Grange some years ago a Druidical
temple of a construction similar to the greatest one in the County of
Kirkmichael, and nearly of the same dimensions. The diameter of the
inner circle was sixty feet, the wall itself was five feet high. At the
distance of nine feet, an outer wall of the same height was carried
round. The space between these concentric circular walls was filled with
ashes of wood and bones of different animals, particularly sheep and
oxen. A paved way led across the area, from west to east, to a large
free stone, standing erect between the circles and rising feet above the
pavement. This stone, which seemed to have been the altar, was flat at
the top and two feet square. At Cupar-Grange the Abbot’s steward
resided, who, managing the affairs of the Monastery, often in troublous
times prepared there a retreat for his brethren. A century ago it was
celebrated for a particular quality of seed-oats, which for a long time
went by the name of the Cupar-Grange oats; and which rose cleaner,
whiter, and more substantial from kindly soil, sometimes three feet in
depth. The principal property in the other portion of the parish, east
of the Ericht, is the Grange of Aberbothry. It is all level, manageable
ground, with a gentle ascent north-eastward. Most of the lands are of
clay of a whitish nature in the bottom, but enriched with dark vegetable
deposit, excellent for producing oats. Here and there through the parish
are singular ridges of natural formation, called dru ms, from dorsum
(Latin), the back ; all having a parallelism to one another, and
declining eastward. Whatever cause may have produced the mountains and
the strath, these drums appear to have been produced by the tides of the
ocean, of which Strathmore was then a channel, and to have been formed
(like banks in channels of the sea), by the tide of the flood. They are
in length nearly perpendicular to the line of ascent of the Grampian
ridge, and are most prevalent in that part of the ascent which is
flattest Several subterraneous buildings, supposed to be of Pictish
origin, were about a hundred years ago discovered in the grounds of
Mudhall. When cleared of the ashes and earth with which they were
filled, these were found to be about six feet wide within walls, five
feet deep, and upwards of forty feet long; built in the sides and paved
in the bottom with unhewn whin-stones. They answer to the description
which the Roman historian, Tacitus, gave of some buildings of the
Germans:— “They dig in eaves in the earth, where they lay up their grain
and live in winter. Into these they also retire from their enemies, who
plunder the open country, but cannot discover these subterranean
recesses.” Mr. Playfair, in referring to this, quaintly remarked, “If
people were obliged again to creep into a hole, they would know the
value of good government by the want of it.”

Ecclesiastically,
Bendochy has all along, up to the Reformation, had very intimate
connection with the Abbey of Cupar, and it was the Parish Church of
Cupar before the Reformation. In 1105, Persic (under the name Parthesin)
and Aberbothry were granted by William the Lion to the Abbey. We add a
few notes from the Cupar.

Registers which will show
the connection and give the varied forms of spelling the name. In 1443,
the revenue of the church of Benachty, along with the small teinds of
Keithock, were let for £20 Scots yearly, and the tenants of Aberbothry
were restricted by the Abbot to two hogs each, on account of the
recurrence of some pestilential disease. In 1462, Abbot David Bane let
the church of Benachty to David Blair for £20 Scots annually. Aberbothry
was let eleven years after this for 42 merks, 2 dozen capons and 2 hens.
In 1477, a commission was granted by the Abbot of Dunfermline to David
Rush to grant a piece of land belonging to the Monastery, and contiguous
to the south part of the cemetery of the Parish Church of Bennachty for
the enlargement of the said cemetery. Two years afterwards, John Coul,
clerk of the office and church of Bendachy, resigned said office. In
1508, Abbot William of Cupar petitioned the Bishop of Dunkeld to confirm
the presentation of Sir Paul Brown, chaplain to the vicarage of Bendachi.
In 1542, £25 were given for the rent of the vicarage of Benethy. Seven
years afterwards the tenants of Aberbothrie were bound to do “their dewi-ties
ielelie and trewlie, but [without] fraud or gyle to the lady-priest and
paroche clerk of Bennothy.” The years following, similar injunctions
were given, when the name is spelled Bendocthie, Bendochty, Bennethe,
Benathe, and Benathy. In 1558, the tenants were to do “their det to oure
miln of the Blacklaw, boitman of Ilay, lady-priest and paroche clerk of
Bennathy;” but immediately afterwards the last part is altered to “the
dominical chaplain and the chaplain of the blessed Mary and the parish
clergyman.” The teinds of Bennethie were valued in 1561 at 68 chalders
(two-thirds meal and one-third barley), and the vicarage £6 13s. 4d.
Scots. In 1569, this parish and Kettins were conjoined with a stipend of
£22 4s 5d. Collace was afterwards added—James Anderson being the
minister of the three charges. In 1663, Henry Malcolm, minister of
Bendochy, was clerk of Synod. In 1692, David Rankin, author of several
works, was minister. In 1740, James Ramsay dissented from the resolution
of the General Assembly to depose the eight seceding brethren.

A century ago, the seats
of Keithock in Cupar parish stood in the Church of Bendochy. The walls
of the Church arc understood to be very old. The pulpit is in the style
of John Knoxs, to be seen in the Museum of St. Andrews University. In
the back wall of the church is a stone created, in 1587, to the memory
of Nicol Campbell, proprietor of Keithock, son of Donald, Abbot of Cupar,
and grandson of the Earl of Argyle. Another, in the west passage, was
erected, in 1584, to the memory of Ins brother David, proprietor of
Denhead, in Cupar parish. There is also a stone to Leonard Leslie,
Commendator of Cupar Abbey, who died in 1605, aged 81. And there is a
figure in the wall, of date 1606, representing John Cummin, proprietor
of Couttie, in Bendochy parish, dressed in a coat of mail, and standing
on a dog. On account of the inconvenience of crossing the Ericht,
especially when in flood, there was in the good old times a chapel at
St. Fink, under the name St. Findoce, for the people on tho cast side.
The houses near it arc called the Chapelton; and the ruins of the
foundations still remain. Around the chapel there had been a
burying-ground; for on several occasions skulls without a body each
enclosed between four square stones fitted to hold the head, were dug
up, evidently of soldiers who had been slain at a distance. Below a
cairn of stones, among tho loose earth, which was black with burnt
ashes, were found human bones half burned; and further down two inverted
urns, adorned with rude sculpture and containing human bones, both in
perfect preservation. This chapel and another at Callie gave evidence
that, so far at least as providing religious accommodation for the
people was concerned, the Abbots of Cupar had done their duty. For the
last few years the minister of the parish—the Rev. George Brown— has
been doing something to meet the wants of the old and the convenience of
all, by having a place fitted up for occasional services on Sunday
evenings. This laudable movement deserves all encouragement, and the
great numbers, who avail themselves of this opportunity of attending
Divine service, satisfactorily prove that there are chapels planted and
supported in less necessitous places by our Home Mission Committee. To
show the attachment that the people of Bendochy parish had to the work
done by the Catholics and Episcopalians, they retained the Episcopal
minister twelve years after the Revolution, and adhered to him even
after the settlement of his Presbyterian successor. It was in Bendochy
Church that the deputation from the Tron Church of Glasgow heard Thomas
Chalmers, then minister of Kilmany, who was awakening from the sense of
failure of his work, when conducted with the nicety of mathematical
exactness, to the broad evangelical life which so marvellously stirred
the souls of a generation, For nearly half-a-century the parishioners
had the rare privilege—rare in a small country parish without even a
village—of having as their minister Dr. James Barty, a man of
distinguished scholarship, legal acumen, and preaching power, who was
raised to the Moderator’s chair of the General Assembly. With
indefatigable energy he set about improving the position and
strengthening the work of the preacher at Persie chapel, which had been
erected in 1785, by having a manse built, a glebe allotted, and the
parish endowed; and all this he lived to see accomplished according to
his best wishes. The old ecclesiastical hauteur, blended with poetic
taste, was strongly marked in his countenance and manner, which can be
easily inferred from this note in his article in the New Statistical
Account of the parish:— “The manse is sweetly situated on the banks of
the Isla, snugly embosomed in its own little grove of wood, and oh! ye
my successors, lift not up the axe against the trees. Touch not the old
ash that has stood for a century the sentinel of the manse, guarding it
from the eastern blasts, and protecting from the storm the graceful
birches that weep and wave their branches below.” The highest prize for
entrant students of divinity at the four University seats—the Barty
prize—is derived from the interest of money raised after his death, by
his well-wishers, as a memorial of his worth. Principal Playfair of St
Andrews was a native of the parish of Bendochy; and for a time the Rev.
J. Honey was minister, a man of gigantic stature and remarkable strength
('the true type of muscular Christianity), who will be long remembered
for his daring and heroic feat, when a student at St. Andrews in 1800,
in rescuing from imminent death five shipwrecked sailors by successively
swimming with them—one by one —through the boiling surf, at the hazard
of his own life ; for which he had the honour of the freedom of the City
conferred on him.

The Parochial registers
are contained in seven volumes, from 1642. They give the usual ample
proof of rigid discipline and inquisitorial surveillance exercised by
the kirk-sessions of those days. One offender “ the session thou yat
fitt to bring in sackcloth, till he acknowledge his guilt on his knees.”
Another female delinquent appeared for the twentieth time before the
congregation on the stool of repentance. A young lad having struck a boy
on the Sabbath day for throwing a stone among the children, confessed
that “he went out, and only shot him over; the members, after
discoursing of it, thought fitt to dismiss him with the session rebook.”
A laird was rebuked for going out with his gun on the Fast-day “only to
fleg the tod from his sheep.” The session accepted four pounds nine
shillings from a farmer “as satisfaction for his daughter’s resiling
from purpose of marriage after the publication of banns.” The elders
used to go through the parish during divine service to pick up any
straggler who should have been at church; but with all their
supervision, the parish statute-book shows the occasional black marks of
the secret sin, engendered by the old Adam.

According to the report
by a Committee of the Presbytery of Meigle in 1808, two acres of ground
were being set apart for “minister’s grass,” when some of the heritors
protested, that, as the minister then had been in possession (from time
immemorial) of the right of pasturage for his cows and horse over
kirk-lands in the parish, belonging to the Hon. Stuart Mackenzie,
therefore no recourse should be had against the other heritors for the
grass ground so set apart; and that at one time £20 scots was set apart
by decreet of the Presbytery in lieu of grass for the minister. In the
Government Return issued on the 6th October, 1884, we observe that the
unexhausted teinds belonging to this Parish amount to £22.

As could be at once
inferred from its fore-lying situation, the parish is on the whole
healthy and of a fine climate. The lowest reading of the thermometer
during last century was 8 degrees Fahr. in December 1794. The hoar-frost
on the ice of the river was half-an-inch long (reminding us of the
marvellously fairy-like appearance of the hoar frost of December 1882);
but for all the frost, there was a pool of still water in the Isla (100
feet above sea level), that did not freeze. According to Dr. Barty, on
the 10th February 1838, the thermometer read 8 degrees below zero (or 40
degrees of frost); when water spilt in a bedroom, in which there had
been constant fire night and day for ten days previously, almost
instantly congealed. The crop of 1795, which followed the intense cold
of the winter before, was so deficient that the price of grain was
doubled. In March of that year there was rain with a flood ; on May 9th
it was snowing heavily— the thermometer never rising above 48 degrees
during the whole month, nor above GO degrees during the whole summer ;
so that, on account of very broken weather, the cars of the uncut oats
sprang, standing upright in the fields, and the harvest was not taken in
till the 24th of October, when from Loch Brandy (due north) a reeving
wind helped the husbandman’s labours.

The state of agriculture
has altered very materially since the accounts of 1750. Then it was
conducted in the runrig system, i.e., each field was divided into as
many parts or ridges as there were farmers in the village. In Cupar-Grange
alone there were fifty families, having its brewer, carrier, miller, and
shop. It was a self-protection policy to ward oft the Highland
depredators. In these ridges the good and bad land was equally divided
among all, but the pasturage was common. They ploughed with eight oxen ;
and their corn was very good in quality. They used tumbler sledges for
carts. There was no glass in the windows, but only wooden boards; and
the houses were vile with smoke for want of vents. All the time of
harvest a piper was kept for playing to the shearers at the usual
harvest fee, the slowest shearer having always the drone behind him. The
population of the parish was therefore very much higher than now, when
there are no small pendicles, but all is absorbed in large farms. In
1750, the population was 1293; while, in 1811, after the change in the
farming system, the population was 748. Now it is 499, but this excludes
the part in Persie. In 16.30, the valuation of the parish was (according
to the minutes of the Presbytery), equal to 115 chalders of victual,
which then would be worth about £1000; nowit is £12,075. At the
beginning of the present century a ploughman’s wages were £10 (though
some years before they were only £5), a woman’s wages £4, a day
labourer’s 8d. to 10d. a wright, mason, or smith’s 20d. to 22d. per day;
the price of a new cart was £6, and new harrow 7s.; a fat ox, 40 Dutch
stone weight, £10, and a good horse £12.

Things are now vastly
changed for farmers, with the lower prices and higher expenses and
rents. We agree with Dr. Barty’s experienced remark in 1843, equally
applicable now—“It is in his byre that the farmer looks for his rent,”
He would need now to do so. For unless grain rises in value, or some
latent productive power in the soil be discovered, or the farmer’s
outlay be diminished, it is not easy to see how he can continue long to
pay his present rent.” The poor are now very indifferent, being more so
on account of the working of the mistaken Poor-Law Act; the old spirit
of independence is dying out. In the beginning of the century the
poor—even the deserving poor —only received from two to five shillings a
month; and, as Mr. Playfair quaintly remarked, “That is only 2d. a day,
which cannot detain them long from that country where ‘the weary are at
rest.’”

As already remarked,
there is no village in the parish. In 1840, Mr. Archer erected a
farina-work at Coutty Bridge, which is occasionally a great boon to
farmers when potatoes are either diseased or plentiful; and nothing can
be finer or more beautiful than the flour there manufactured. The Coutty
Bridge over the Isla was built by the Government in 17G6; but it is now
inconveniently narrow for the increased traffic. The parish is purely
agricultural; but few parishes can equal it in the value of its stock or
the weight of its grain. Quietly, in general, do the people live. Daily
viewing the Creator in His works, they contemplate the Divine economy in
the arrangement of the seasons; “ away from the madding crowd/' their
natural affections are cherished more purely than in the bustle of town
life ; their habits become their principles, and they are ready to risk
their lives to maintain them. Long may this continue, without the
contamination of the foul disease of Communism which is being generated
in the great centres of population ! Virgil’s inimitable description of
the pleasures of a rural life may aptly suit Bendochy :—

“An easy, quiet, and a
safe retreat,
A harmless life devoid of foul chicane,
And home-bred plenty the rich owner wait,
With rural pleasures sporting in her train.
Unvex’d with quarrels, undisturb’d with noise,
In peaceful industry time glides away;
He, living lakes and flow’ry fields enjoys,
Woods, hills and dales, and streams that thro’ them play.”

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